Monday, 15 June 2015

Happy First Birthday SBJ!

Our Sweet Baby James turned one on May 20th.  We had some friends over for drinks and tacos.  Our kiwi friends said, "Tacos, eh?  That's very American isn't it?"  I guess it is.  They don't really have Mexican food around here.  Lance went to a "Mexican" restaurant and they served fried chicken.  He said it was amazing, but fried chicken labeled as Mexican food?  Unless I'm missing something.  I digress.  James's birthday.  I baked a Texas sheet cake ("That's very American, isn't it?") and we sang happy birthday.    Mostly it was like any other of our friend gatherings, plus a couple extra babies crawling around from my mums and bubs coffee group.  James had a good time and who doesn't love a good taco?  He looked rather dashing in his suit from Aunt Lindsey.  The 'birthday suit' joke was passed around all night.



Why, hello ladies.
The suit had one of those Xs on the back to keep the flaps from wrinkling and he was not about to hold still long enough for me to cut it.

So I sat on him.



You have no idea how many pictures it took to get one with his hat on.  He whipped that thing off faster than I can eat a piece of sheet cake.  That's fast.  All our pictures have a blurry hand and hat.











 And just as a comparison, same towel one week old and one year old.  Our boy.


Thank you to everyone who has been a part of James's first year.  We are very blessed!

Saturday, 13 June 2015

Tawharanui Hike


Tawharanui Open Sanctuary - April 2015

After a weekend of recovering from all the adventures and places we went with our parents, we decided to make the most of our last nice weekend before the rainy season was upon us again in NZ.  Our friends the Bruffys told us about a great place about an hour north of Auckland called Tawharanui Regional Park.  They weren’t joking.  This park on the Tawharanui peninsula encompassed Anchor Bay (looks like an actual anchor from above) was absolutely beautiful.  There wasn’t much to tell about the hike, besides the fact that we ended up with a gorgeous day and beautiful sunshine.  I’ll let the pictures tell the story.







360 View

















This was my last chance to get in the ocean before the winter came and the water got too cold, so after the hike I ran into the water for a quick dip.  It was bitter-sweet knowing that it was the last time that I would be in the water out here until probably December.  Maggie passed the time having a photo shoot with James as he played with socks and fallen leaves.  Life was good for James.